For many years, the harvesting of various kinds of fruit from commercial orchards has been done by hand picking from ladders by pickers carrying sacks for receiving the fruit. In recent years the scarcity of labor and greatly increased labor costs have spawned a variety of mechanical picking machines and systems, particularly in the citrus orchards supplying the large demand for juice concentrates.
One of the most recent machines designed to aid in the picking operation is the machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,957 dated Apr. 22, 1975. A copy of the patent is enclosed. Many of these machines have been built and operated successfully in the state of Florida.
However, as is usual in the case of newly designed machines, certain improvements have been designed as the result of operations in the field by these latter machines, and the present invention embodies such improvements. For example, it was found desirable in order to facilitate maneuvering the bucket in and around the tree branches to change the extensible part of the boom from two arms or sections to three sections. This change caused certain problems in construction, resulting in the creation of improvements solving such problems.
Other problems arose in providing a durable and workable flexible conduit connection between the outer end of the boom as the bucket pivots on the boom to maintain the bucket level regardless of the changing inclination of the boom. Further improvements were created to solve those problems.
Another problem arose in connection with the fruit being crushed in the storage hopper, particularly as the hopper became increasingly loaded, adding more and more weight on the fruit in the lower part of the hopper. Further improvements were created to remedy that situation.